The Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr. Hassan Fakhro, who officially opened the facility, said that to have the largest Chemical Company in the World, BASF establish a manufacturing facility in Bahrain was a great privilege for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and for the Kingdom of Bahrain.
At this new plant BASF will manufacture a range of customer specific antioxidant blends (CSB’s) for the plastics and polymer industry.
BASF is now the 6th German company to start operations at the Park and as a result of continuing marketing efforts in Germany; it is forecasted to attract more German companies to the Park in 2013.
The visit of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa to Berlin and the many associations he created there no doubt played a great part in this development for which we are so grateful.
As of today a total of 41 companies are operational at the Park, employing over 2,000 people and almost half of these companies are from overseas.
They come from Germany, USA, UK, France, Singapore, Japan, India, Lebanon, Jordan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
These 41 companies are investing BD135million ($360million) and almost 60% of this investment is coming from the foreign companies
A further 40 companies are at different stages of development, —-some under construction, some with signed leases and others who are finalizing their leases.
These companies will invest a further BD350 million, almost $1billion and over 80% of this total will come from foreign companies.
The BIIP was established back in 2005, we set about building a facility to the highest international standards indeed. The Bahrain International Investment Park recently participated in the “Middle East Parks Future rankings”; the BIIP was placed 7th in the Middle East and 1st in Bahrain.
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and agricultural products to oil and gas.
Globally BASF employs over 100,000 people.
With this investment BASF Plastic Additives continues to strengthen its position as the leading partner for the plastic processing industry worldwide and shows its strong commitment to support the growth of the polymer industry in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC). CSB are additives-blends individually tailored to meet individual customer needs and are an integral part of the portfolio BASF is offering to the plastics industry.
“BASF’s investment in this new site demonstrates our steadfast commitment to support growing industries in the Middle East, while at the same time setting standards with regard to quality, safety and employee training”, said Michael Heinz, member of the board of executive directors at BASF, during the opening ceremony.
“We are delighted to welcome BASF, a leading international company, to Bahrain. Large manufacturing firms like BASF are playing an increasingly important role in our economy and will be a significant part of our plan to create sustainable long term economic growth and high quality jobs,” Kamal bin Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Acting Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, said.
The new facility, which is based on proprietary CSB technology, will provide local production and services to the fast growing polymer market in the Middle East with special focus on key customers in the countries of the GCC. It comes in addition to the existing manufacturing agreement for CSB with Astra Polymer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been prolonged earlier this year.
John Frijns, Head of Plastic Additives Europe/EAWA, stresses the necessity of local structures: “As BASF, we are committed to accompany the growth in the region with technical and flexible supply solutions. This is only possible as a local supplier”.
The new facility is part of a strong antioxidants production network comprising Asia, Europe and the Americas, which will be further optimized once the new capacity comes on stream.